The present invention relates to a coffee machine.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a coffee machine of the type comprising a horizontal dispenser assembly, in turn comprising a boiler with a pressurized-hot-water sprinkler; a dispenser cup for housing at least part of a ground-coffee container and positioned facing the sprinkler; a hydraulic thrust cylinder aligned with the boiler along a horizontal axis, located on the opposite side of the dispenser cup to the boiler, and comprising a piston for moving the dispenser cup to and from an infusion position in which the dispenser cup is connected to the sprinkler; and a vertical loading conduit for loading a ground-coffee container between the sprinkler and the dispenser cup.
In a known coffee machine of the above type, the dispenser cup is fixed with respect to the hydraulic cylinder piston, is aligned with the boiler sprinkler and the hydraulic cylinder along said horizontal axis, and is movable by the piston between said infusion position and a withdrawn rest or loading position in which the dispenser cup defines, with the sprinkler, a passage located directly beneath the loading conduit and for receiving a ground-coffee container positioned on edge and coaxial with said horizontal axis.
In actual use, a ground-coffee container is fed on edge along the loading conduit into said passage where it is arrested by a shutter plate, which arrests the fall of the container and keeps it in said position aligned with the dispenser cup and the boiler sprinkler. The hydraulic cylinder is then activated to move the dispenser cup into the infusion position in which the dispenser cup normally houses at least part of the container and presses it in fluidtight manner against the sprinkler. Once the coffee is percolated, the dispenser cup is restored to the rest position and the shutter plate is removed to allow the used container to drop through the passage.
The known machine described above has several drawbacks, the worst of which all depend, directly or indirectly, on the presence of the shutter plate. That is, owing to the presence of the shutter plate, the known machine described above, as opposed to using any type of ground-coffee container, be it a wafer or rigid capsule, can only operate using special containers having a rigid, perfectly cylindrical lateral wall capable of ensuring, in contact with the shutter plate, that the container is perfectly coaxial with the sprinkler and dispenser cup. Moreover, the shutter plate must be capable of performing movements independent of those imparted to the dispenser cup by the hydraulic cylinder, and must therefore have an independent actuating device normally comprising an electric motor featuring a given number of control microswitches and in itself bulky and expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coffee machine which is cheap and easy to produce and at the same time provides for eliminating the aforementioned drawbacks.
According to the present invention, there is provided a coffee machine of the type comprising a horizontal dispenser assembly, in turn comprising a boiler with a pressurized-hot-water sprinkler; a dispenser cup for housing at least part of a ground-coffee container, the dispenser cup being positioned facing said sprinkler; a hydraulic thrust cylinder aligned with the boiler along a horizontal first axis and located on the opposite side of said dispenser cup to the boiler, the hydraulic cylinder comprising a piston for moving the dispenser cup to and from an infusion position in which the dispenser cup is connected to said sprinkler; and a vertical loading conduit for loading a said container between said sprinkler and said dispenser cup; the machine being characterized in that said dispenser cup is supported by said piston to oscillatexe2x80x94with respect to the piston, preferably by virtue of a thrust imparted by the piston, and about a second axis, preferably a horizontal axis, crosswise to said first axisxe2x80x94between a load setting in which the dispenser cup faces at least partly upwards and towards said loading conduit, and an unload setting in which the dispenser cup is oriented at least partly downwards, and via an infusion setting assumed by the dispenser cup in said infusion position, and in which the dispenser cup is coaxial with said first axis.